New Zealand - End of North Island in Wellington (4 of 6)

Day Four – Rotorua to Wellington
Today we traveled south to Wellington stopping first at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland to view some of the geothermal features of the region, including the Lady Knox Geyser.

It's like something out of Ghostbusters.

Then we went to see a geyser erupt. They use soap to get it to go off at a particular hour.

  

Lake Taupo - largest surface area lake (not water capacity). Surface area of lake is larger than Singapore.

After traveling around Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake, we stopped in Turangi for lunch and then headed south along the Desert Road where unfortunately the weather stopped us from viewing the active volcanoes within the UNESCO World Heritage Tongariro National Park. We did manage to stop for a quick, rather dramatic photo of the tallest volcano though, named Mt. Ruapehu and standing at 2794m!

Our next comfort stop was in the remark-a-bull town of Bulls. Check out all the bull puns!

Since I was co-pilot I took a few candid shots  of the van ride.

We finally arrived in Wellington in the early evening. The restaurant where we had dinner was called One Red Dog on the Wellington waterfront.

Day Five – Wellington
Today we woke to the wild wind Wellington is famous for. We braved the weather and headed out for a walking tour of the city which took in the houses of parliament, the old shoreline, the main shopping street and finally the waterfront.

Then we were off on our own in Wellington for the day. A small group of us decided to take the cable car up to the view and then walk around the botanical gardens.

 

We were trying to find the gardens and the signage was not good. So we ended up a little lost. Which way do we go?

We decided to see if we could tell time on a sundial.

Sexy Rexy is a good name for roses... although they haven't bloomed yet.

After we took cable car back down, we visited the national Te Papa Museum. 

On the Wellington waterfront.

People were diving off this diving board trying to make the biggest splash.

 Randomly found some bagpipers. Female players too!

 There was dragon boat practices happening!

This was a really cool wooden bridge.

 Last night on the North Island. Tomorrow we take a ferry to the South Island.